The Failures of a Leader
1 Samuel 15:1-35
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 15. Last week we looked at the heart of God in the beginning of our story from this chapter. And we know from the story that Samuel gave instructions to Saul.
“Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; so now, obey the voice of the words of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”’”
1 Sam 15:1-3 (LSB)
From these three verses, we made the following observation if we could say it in one big sentence: God is perfect—therefore , God has every right and is free to do all He wishes with His creation; therefore, our perspective of God must be biblical and not based upon mere human feeling; and though we will grow in our love for God and our understanding of God, we will never completely know the mind of God; therefore, our response to God can be nothing less than an overwhelming awareness of His greatness, as our intellectual distance from God should remind us always of His awesomeness; yet, God’s intellectual distance from us does not mean that His heart is not moved by both our sinfulness against Him or our sincere worship of Him.
If you missed last Sunday or if you were here and you are still struggling with these verses, this is something that we must as believers get straight in our hearts and minds. Mainly, the enormity of God and the multi-faceted way in which He deals with His people, and the vast complexity of His character. In other words, we do not want to create our own God, but we need to hold to the God of the Bible. And know, though we may not always understand, the fullness of God.
Now this morning, we will have to tackle another difficult topic, the actions of King Saul. We know thus far, the clear instructions that the Lord gave to Saul. And so, we will examine how He will respond to those instructions. And in our story, this morning, Saul begins to carry out the instructions of Samuel: he gathers his army and goes against the Amalekites as commanded; he is kind to the Kenites because they were kind to Israel as commanded; he destroys everything for the most part as commanded; but he spares Agag the king and the best of the animals; and then he spends the rest of the chapter basically denying his disobedience. Certainly, a sad story of Saul the leader.
It is hard to find strong leadership isn’t it, whether that is in church ministry or in the secular world? For the Bible speaks highly of some secular leaders who the Lord used for His purposes. Those of you doing the church read or those in the ladies’ Bible study have become familiar with Pharaoh at the time of Joseph, as he is basically depicted as wise and faithful to Joseph and his family. I am assuming that many are watching the federal government leadership race currently. And we may or may not have particular candidates we may be cheering for, but there always can be some cynicism, as we have all known leaders in the past who promised much but did not come though. If there was a negative word that seems to circle around leadership, it would be that of disappointment, as sooner or later, many leaders will at some point let us down, disappoint us.
So, I suppose we could ask the question: Why is it that so many leaders never seem to be all that competent or all that honest and good? And bringing that down, we might ask that question of the schoolteacher who leads a class, or the father who leads his household. Now biblical theology could answer that question to some degree as we understand that we are all effected by sin. So, we learn quickly that no leader is going to be perfect. And I am sure that many of us have been disappointed in the past, to become aware of a shortcoming of a parent or someone that we just really looked up to. This teaches us that though we can love a leader and give him or her our support, we cannot, on the other hand, give unqualified trust to such leaders, can we? I suppose we can go to two extremes here on this: one, that we ignore character flaws in a leader; but on the other side, we find ourselves becoming so cynical that we are never trusting of anyone.
And what we are looking for in leadership is quality and character. Yet even those without it still led, don’t they? As there is no question that Saul is the leader in our story. And we must give some credit to Saul in that he did accomplish some great victories. Yet the danger would be to look to those accomplishments and ignore his faults. And when we use the term faults, we are not speaking of the giftedness or lack of giftedness in certain areas, for not every leader is going to have all the gifts. I know I lack a number of great qualities that I see in other leaders. But when we are talking here about faults, we are addressing character flaws: laziness, insincerity, selfishness, a lack of love for those the leader is directing, hidden sins, and hypocrisy. In other words, pretending to be something he is not. And in Saul’s case, we are not talking about a personality flaw, but we see here a much greater concern, disobedience.
So, Saul is like anyone else that when we consider their life with all its ups and downs, times of triumph and times of defeat, and times when we might tend to praise and other times when we might tend to criticize. But if we are to look at Saul as a complete person, this incident in 1 Samuel 15 is really a summary of who he was, his true character. Sure, he had times when he seemed to trust God somewhat. But the real Saul, his real heart, in other words, if we want to understand him, then 1 Samuel 15 is where we need to go. Listen to the initial words to him.
“Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; so now, obey the voice of the words of Yahweh.’”
1 Samuel 15:1 (LSB)
Here we get an understanding of God’s interaction with Saul. Samuel said to him, “Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people.” No question that this was a direct command from God to Saul. It was not something that Saul earned or achieved, it was simply a choice that God had made, that he would be king. And if we think back to 1 Samuel 14, where Saul was jealous of Jonathan, where his actions give every indication of the selfishness of Saul for his own glory, completely ignoring the fact that the Lord had called him to such a position. Yahweh sent me to anoint you. Next, “Yahweh sent me [Samuel] to anoint you as king over His people.” This shows us that it was Samuel who was the one who anointed Saul. In other words, Saul was to submit to the prophet Samuel. Remember Saul, that even though you are the king, it is the Lord’s prophet who still speaks into you, as you are not the ultimate authority. This explains that back in 1 Samuel 13, when Saul had performed the sacrifice disobediently, it was Samuel who told him that he had acted foolishly.
Likely one of the greatest hurdles of any leader who gains any kind of success is the attitude that they have become invincible and can act or do things on their own without any accountability. I was reading about Tiger Woods, who, as far as I know is not a Christian. Yet even Tiger Woods when he was at the top of his game and he had his affair and was later in a car accident, he said, that when I was enjoying so much success, I convinced myself that I could do anything, anything that I desired without consequence. For he said that he thought he was invincible. Yet we know that even when the Lord calls someone to lead, that leader is not the ultimate authority. For God’s Word is and this case, God’s Word spoken through God’s prophet.
And finally (vs 1) “Yahweh sent me to anoint you as king over His people.” A reminder here to Saul that those who were under his care were not his people, Saul’s people, they were God’s people. This came to light when Saul said (14:24), “I am avenged on my enemies.” In other words, he took the privilege of the responsibility that the Lord had given to him, and took it as his own, forgetting that he was to be the steward of what he had been given. We need to understand all that is going on here in the heart of Saul. God had appointed Saul. He was to listen to God’s prophet Samuel. And his responsibility were the people of God, God’s people, not his own. And he was responsible (10:25) for the “legal judgments of the kingdom,” which it says were placed before Yahweh. In other words, this is what you were to carry out Saul. This was the responsibility Saul that you were given. And you latched on to that responsibility, and you became jealous for your own glory, and you were disobedient to the Lord.
Saul, (vs 2-3) you are to completely destroy the Amalekites. You are not judging them Saul, I the Lord is judging them. And at first glance of the story, it would seem that Saul is determined to do what the Lord had told him. For (vs 4-5) he summons the people, exactly what the Lord had told him to do. And he was careful to be gracious to the Kenites who had been kind to Israel. And we could be quite impressed with Saul here, as he seems to be careful to do all that he is commanded. And after showing kindness to the Kenites, he begins the battle against the Amalekites. Verse 7, “So Saul struck the Amalekites.” Yet, he spares Agag. Now, we actually are not told why Saul did this or why he spared the better animals. I mean, we might come up with some thoughts, but we are not told specifically here of why. Yet we are told (vs 8-9) that it was Saul and the people who spared Agag and the best of the animals. And then we are given the Lord’s response to all this.
“Then the word of Yahweh came to Samuel, saying, ‘I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not established My words.’”
1 Sam 15:10-11a (LSB)
As we have mentioned before that this is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 6, when it says that the Lord regretted that He had made man just prior to bringing the worldwide flood. Good for us to know here that this does not change the plan of God. That God knew before the creation of the world that He would destroy the world by a flood. That God knew before He anointed Saul king that Saul would disobey. In fact, both these things were part of the plan of God. Which takes no responsibility off the wickedness of the people before the flood, and takes no responsibility away from Saul here, though it was part of God’s plan. Just as the killing of His Son Jesus Christ was also part of (Acts 2:23) the “predetermined plan” of God.
Yet, what we must not miss here is that God does not coldly look upon these things, for His heart hurt over the sins on the people, and specifically, the sin of Saul here. And we also see the heart of God though His prophet Samuel.
“And Samuel became angry and cried out to Yahweh all night.”
1 Sam 15:11b (LSB)
We are not told exactly if Samuel was angry with Saul or the Lord here. I like what John Woodhouse says that Samuel probably did not know either, he was simply distraught. Next, we see Saul (vs 12) going to bed and getting up early in the morning. Perhaps a good night sleep will allow him to rethink all that he has done and realize that he has been disobedient. But notice what Saul does when he wakes up (vs 12), he sets up a monument to himself, which should give us a little indication that the narrator here in the story is reminding us again of the true condition of Saul’s heart.
Good to be reminded, of the easy way in which we can get a big head of the importance of ourselves. I told you a story a few years ago of Chuck Swindoll, who as a young pastor preached a great sermon. And he was congratulated by an older lady as she shook his hand after the service, saying, Pastor Swindoll, you are becoming one of the great preachers of our time. And Swindoll mentioned this to his wife on the drive home and he said it was a little uncomfortable because his wife did not respond. So, he said he foolishly he kept rambling on and said, honey, just how many great preachers do you think there are in America today? And she said, one less than you think Charles. The challenge of remaining humble in leadership.
And when Samuel arrives, Saul merrily goes to greet Samuel and says, “Blessed are you of Yahweh! I have established the word of Yahweh.” Now as we mentioned last week, it is hard to know whether Saul is blatantly lying here, or that sin has deceived him to think he has actually done what is right, as sin can so often blind us to the truth and to do wrong actions. In other words, how you and I might deal with a work situation or family issue, when we are not in tune with the Lord. Who knows what decisions we might make? And then the humorous part of the story where Samuel asks Saul about the noise of the sheep. In other words, Saul, you were supposed to kill all the animals, why am I hearing sheep Saul? And this is the classic human response that we seem to quickly learn as toddlers. Well, it wasn’t me. It was those guys. It was that person. The woman you gave me Lord; she gave me the fruit. Lord, the blame is not mine. It’s my parents, my upbringing, my circumstances, the government, but it certainly is not my fault! In fact, Samuel did you not notice that we (vs 15) spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. In other words, Samuel, there was a good reason we didn’t do exactly what we were told. Woodhouse writes here:
“Not only did Saul try to shift the blame to the people (‘they’ did it!) and play down the wrongness (it was ‘to sacrifice’), he then took credit for the part of what had been done that was obedient (‘we’ did that bit): ‘the rest we have devoted to destruction.’”
John Woodhouse, Looking for a Leader: 1 Samuel 270
And notice Saul’s words when explaining the right that he did. We did all this for “your” God, Samuel. Do you ever realize that when we are not in a good place spiritually that we may often de-centralize God in our own lives, and we start to use language like, their belief or the church did this, as opposed to my responsibility before God. Good to consider here in our owns lives why? Why are we disobedient?
“Why then did you not obey the voice of Yahweh, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh?”
1 Sam 15:19 (LSB)
Why do we human beings fail to obey God? Why did Saul not obey here? For when we think about the goodness of God, the wisdom of God, our sin makes absolutely no sense! Hard to know all that is going on in Saul’s mind and heart, as Saul again tries to justify his wrong actions, and becomes somewhat honest, but likely in words only.
“Then Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned; I have indeed trespassed against the command of Yahweh and your words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.’”
1 Sam 15:24 (LSB)
And then we see when Samuel gives Saul the final verdict for his sin from the Lord. He tries to grab the robe of Samuel and Samuel declares these troubling words to Saul.
“So Samuel said to him, ‘Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.’”
1 Sam 15:28 (LSB)
And finally, we see the true heart of Saul as he further pleads with Samuel.
“Then he said, ‘I have sinned; but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.’”
1 Sam 15:30 (LSB)
What a story! I want to leave you with five lessons.
- If our actions or beliefs are not in obedience to God’s commands, we are never fulfilling a better outcome.
This is a bit of a human trap. To think that my plan or my evaluation of the situation is often outside of what God has already declared. Why? We somehow believe that we will have better results or that we are more loving or more compassionate than God. This is always wrong. We can tend to look at the life of Christ and believe that because Christ was compassionate to people, that somehow Christ rejected judgment. This is not true. Jesus loved the sinner, but He was always truthful with people. And this must always be our mandate, as we will never truly minister to people if we are not truthful with them, as real love must be truthful. For love does not mean blindness to what God has said. And we are not being judgmental when we believe what God has already declared. So, we must be careful to both love and to be truthful. In fact, if we say we love someone, we must be truthful to them. For say to say to someone lovingly that what they are doing is wrong is lovingly warning them and is good for them, if it is coming from a sincere heart that cares, and is loving, and is not hypocritical.
Yes, it is being judgmental if I am judging someone for something that I may not approve. But to say to someone that lying or cheating in a marriage or to have an abortion or to practise a homosexual lifestyle or to steal from the company, we are not judging those things, for God has already judged those things. In fact, if we think that taking less of a stand is kinder, we are actually questioning the character and judgment of God. We do not know all that was going on in the mind of Saul. But he must have had his reasons for believing that he knew better than God. If our actions or beliefs are not in obedience to God’s commands, we are never fulfilling a better outcome.
- A key element to our godly character is directly related to our obedience in following Christ.
In our men’s study we have noticed that throughout some of the shortcomings of Peter, what defined him as a faithful believer was His absolute desire to follow Christ, and therefore, to be obedient to Him. True, we will fail, but it is not a failure without repentance and without a sincere determination to follow. I suppose that if we were brave enough to critique our own faithfulness as a Christian, it would be to ask ourselves the question, how willing am I to follow Christ, with no ifs, ands, or buts? For this is where the rubber meets the road, as a key element to our godly character is directly related to our obedience to follow Christ.
- Ultimately, it is God who has called every Christian and has granted to us our purpose.
Peter wrote:
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.”
2 Pet 1:2-4a (LSB)
The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that he would pray for those who sinned, that the Lord might grant to them salvation. These types of verses highlight the call of God on us, that we have not been saved for some kind of selfish benefit, but that our salvation is a calling by Christ for His glory. For we glorify Christ when we live according to the purpose for which He has called us. In other words, we are not free agents, for we are owned by Christ because we have been purchased by Him. And so, I think about Saul, and I wonder why he would have been so jealous of his position when it was appointed to him. I would want to ask Saul, why not fulfill your calling with honesty and integrity? Why go through all the doubt and resistance and jealousy and insecurity? But then I would also need to ask that of myself. Why all the turmoil at times, when we have been called by Christ and therefore, we should have every security in Christ? And if I have my purpose in Christ, why the resistance against it at times? For ultimately, it is God who has called every Christian and has granted to us our purpose.
- A believer must always be listening to the voice of God.
You may think that this is very similar to our obedience, and I would agree. But it is also an important step prior to that. In other words. hard to be obedient when I am not in the place of listening. I think we would all agree that we as humans need to be reminded constantly. This is partly why we are here this morning, to be reminded of the Lord’s desire for us. We cannot know something and then just be content with that to guide us later in life, especially concerning spiritual matters. No, because without constant reminding, our sinful human nature will soon override the truth we know. This is why good Christian music is so powerful. Not only is it a time when we worship God, but it is also a time when we are reminded of truth. For when God’s Word is forefront in our lives, we are different people. Is this not true? Is it not true, that much of our worry and error in thinking is since we often wander from good biblical truth established in God’s Word. And I would say that if we argue against that, we are not being honest. For we all need this, truth through reading, music, sermons, or from a Christian friend. For none of us are as strong as we might like to believe.
And on the flip side of that is the danger of taking in lies. Allowing the lies of the world to concern us. As well as the need to be more obedient to God, we must become wise in our knowledge of Him. And that will never happen outside of our proactive energy into eating up the truth of God. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.” Church life and study and ministry and devotion cannot just be things that we casually decide upon. No, they must be things that we determine to do. Following Christ is a daily lifelong commitment, as it changes everything in the way we think and act. Therefore, a believer must always be listening to the voice of God.
- We must always consider the Lord’s response to our actions.
As we said last week that God is not immune to our actions, good or bad, as God has chosen to associate with mankind, and allow His heart to both hurt and rejoice with us. This reminds us that we are not our own, as the Lord has called us and therefore has invested greatly in our spiritual growth as believers, and therefore, He is committed to this work. We may think of a passage such as Philippians 2:12-13:
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
Phil 2:12-13 (LSB)
Consider the great disappointment we have in those we mentor or oversee. Whether that is one of our children or someone we minister to. As well as the great joy when they grow. This is no different as Christ leads us. He is the Shepherd, and we are the sheep. And the Shepherd loves the sheep and has laid down His life for the sheep. This type of spiritual growth is the Lord’s heart for us as we lead others. Here Saul was given the responsibility to lead the people of God, one whom the Lord said He regretted that He had made Saul king. Imagine how different it was many years later when Jesus came, when the Father had no regret, but said that He was well-pleased with His Son. What a difference between the character of Saul and the character of Christ, where Jesus came, He was given a mission by the Father, and therefore Jesus humbled Himself before His Father.
“Therefore, God also highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Phil 2:9-11 (LSB)
When I was visiting with Darlene’s husband Jeff who is in a nursing home in Strathroy, as usual I will talk a little about the sermon and we will talk about, something that Jeff responds to so well. and we talked about Saul and his challenges. And I asked Jeff the question, why do you think Saul did not obey the Lord? And I sorted started out by saying that we just do not always want to obey, and that somehow, we believe that our plan is better than God’s or wiser than God’s. To which Jeff immediately said, “We can be very stubborn.” And I said to him, yes, we can. But what a waste and what a loss of our own spiritual growth, but we are stubborn aren’t we Jeff? And then I said, that is why we need the Lord to forgive us, and He does. To which Jeff lit up immediately and repeated, “Yes, He does!” And then Jeff said this, “We serve an amazing God!” Which I could not top, so we prayed.
But it is true, as the battle that goes on between our will and God’s, the battle between His command and our disobedience at times, and His leading and our unwillingness to always follow. And that commitment of our Lord in our lives, shows the great love and leadership He has for us. That we might be faithful in our leadership of others. Let’s pay. Lord, we are a stubborn people, but You are an amazing God. Give us the kind of hearts that would be mouldable and usable by You. Remove everything within us that would hinder our growing into Your likeness. We praise You for the privilege we have been given to shepherd those You have placed in our care. May we see this as Your work and the people as Your people, and that we have been specifically called for such a work. Make us a discerning people who know that Your wisdom is far above ours, that our every move we make is directed by Your Word. Lord, there no other place we would rather be than in Your care. So, may we make our great God look good, always. And all God’s people said, amen.